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September 21, 2022

Research

After a year of being bullied, her son wanted to be white. Why depression and anxiety loom larger for children of color.

Posted on
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Quoted: Dr. Patricia Tellez-Giron, family medicine physician at UW Health, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and Latino Health Council chair, has been practicing family medicine for 25 years. In that time, she’s been able to uniquely observe intergenerational care as her patients grow from infancy into new family systems as adults.

Tellez-Giron said it’s common, especially for Hispanic or Latino children, to be split between two cultures, which can feel like navigating two worlds simultaneously. This speaks to an absence in diverse counselors, Tellez-Giron said, and specifically, culturally competent counselors — that is, health care providers who understand and can uplift a client’s cultural identity.

“Often, the therapist does not understand our culture, why we are protective, how we all raise the kids together,” Tellez-Giron said. “And then (the therapists) tell the kids, ‘You have to be independent. You have to demand your independence.’ That creates, definitely, tension in the family.”

Higher Education/System

Do College Rankings Serve Applicants Well?

Posted on
WSJ

The fact that Columbia falsified its data shows that the importance of these rankings is grossly overestimated. The scandal shows that Columbia’s administrators seem to think the school is untouchable, that consequences don’t apply to them. And they are not wrong. Columbia dropped 16 spots once the news of its cheating broke, but that is unlikely to have an impact on its next application pool. Students will still compete to attend the school for its prestigious Ivy League status. Even if Columbia now looks slightly worse in national rankings, its reputation as a top-tier institution will compensate for this blemish on its record.—Jackson Walker, University of Wisconsin-Madison, journalism and English

Campus life

Madison will require reviews when police use tear gas to control crowds

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

An independent investigator will need to produce a report the next time Madison police use tear gas to control crowds.

The ordinance approved by the city’s Common Council on a 14-4 vote Tuesday night is a softened version of an outright ban on tear gas, originally proposed by Alder Juliana Bennett.

Bennett, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student, told the council Tuesday she vomited after being tear-gassed by police while protesting in Madison during the summer after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

State news

Workers, employers struggle as long COVID sidelines thousands of Wisconsinites

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Alexia Kulwiec, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School for Workers, said she would like to see the federal government return to providing tax incentives for employers who provide paid sick leave for people with long COVID.

Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, employers providing paid leave for up to two weeks to employees for COVID-19 could receive reimbursements in the form of tax credits, but the program ended in March 2021.

“It’s very disheartening to see that the policies that came out during COVID have essentially been reversed and undone, so they’re not there to protect employees today,” Kulwiec said.

Crime and safety

Arts & Humanities

Legendary UW Marching Band director Mike Leckrone returns to the stage in October

Posted on
Madison Magazine

Leckrone, who spent a dazzling half century (1969-2019) as director of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band — years filled with fun, hard work, great acclaim and, inevitably, loss — has fashioned a cabaret-style show, “Mike Leckrone: Moments of Happiness,” that will mix music and storytelling across five performances at Overture’s Playhouse theater Oct. 12-16.

UW Experts in the News

Water problems in Jackson, Mississippi, go deeper than pipes, experts say

Posted on
ABC News

“If [we] drink from the same water source, even if [we] don’t like one another, we’re sort of handcuffed, whether we like each other or not, we’re drinking from the same water, so we both have an interest in making sure that it’s good,” Manny Teodoro, an associate professor at the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told ABC News.

Virginia’s governor restricted rights for trans students. Is it legal?

Posted on
The Washington Post

“Freedom of expression under the First Amendment is much different in a college classroom than it is in a K-through-12 classroom,” said Suzanne Eckes, an education law professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. While pronouns are a new and “gray area,” she said, “there are plenty of cases that just show that First Amendment rights of teachers are strictly limited.”

UW-Madison Related

Wisconsinites rally support for family, friends in flood-stricken Pakistan

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Noted: Najuf Malik, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a second-generation immigrant. In the span of a week, she and members of the multicultural sorority Sigma Psi Zeta, the Pakistani Student Association and other student groups helped raise nearly $6,000 for Akhuwat, a nonprofit based in Pakistan. Malik’s parents knew the founder of Akhuwat, she said, which gave them faith in the organization.

“It’s kind of crazy if you think about it — that’s enough (money) to rebuild a house,” she said. “We really didn’t expect this much money.”

Still, she considers herself lucky her extended family is not living in the areas hit hardest in Pakistan.